Peter Rehak says city residents must accept a “certain amount of traffic” in their neighbourhood; the residents association says nothing is set in stone.

Peter Rehak is fighting to stop changes to Roxborough St., often used by drivers travelling between Yonge St. and Avenue Rd. One proposal by residents annoyed by the amount of traffic is to block the street in the middle.

A proposal floating around Summerhill that would essentially shut down a key two-way street connecting Avenue Rd. and Yonge St. to all cars except those belonging to area residents — in a bid to bring down traffic volume — has some urban dwellers screaming NIMBYism.

It also leads to bigger questions that affect all Torontonians: Do largely residential streets in the city belong only to the people who live on them? Or do they belong to everyone?

The ABC Residents Association is quick to point out that the proposal to seal off the middle of Roxborough St. W., just north of Davenport Rd., is only one among nine or 10 “traffic calming” suggestions that will be presented to the area’s residents in a series of meetings next month.

The association says it would not bring any final proposals to Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam until they have reached a consensus in the neighbourhood.

Not only would the proposal prevent cars from driving straight through Roxborough, it would also reverse the flow of traffic on Macpherson Ave., just north of Roxborough, from east to west.

The whole idea has become a headache for longtime Macpherson homeowner Peter Rehak, who calls the proposal a “giant waste of time.”

“I’m against this on principle,” he said. “You live downtown, you should expect a certain amount of traffic.”

Rehak said he has seen a “marginal” increase in traffic since he moved to Macpherson in the 1970s, when there were far fewer condos and other housing developments.

“We live in a changing city,” he said. “(Roxborough) is one of the few places here that goes both ways. If you prevent cars from driving on it to get to either Avenue or Yonge, those cars are only going to go somewhere else, and it causes more problems.”

A special traffic committee has been meeting regularly over the past year to come up with various proposals to bring down traffic, given some residents’ concerns that there are too many cars speeding through to get to one of the main thoroughfares, said the residents association’s traffic representative, Donna Lacavera.

She said the committee has members from each of the three affected streets — Roxborough, Macpherson and Marlborough, which runs parallel to Macpherson — and said gatherings will be held in April with residents from each of those streets to get their feedback.

Nothing is currently set in stone, said Lacavera. She mentioned other proposals, including allowing northbound Yonge St. drivers to turn left on Davenport.

“We’re still at the investigative stages,” she said. “It is not going to the councillor, and it’s certainly not the official ABC position — not until we have a clear sense from all the residents on the impacted streets that they support it.”

Urban planner George Dark said the idea of rendering city streets only useful to the street’s residents is fairly rare in Toronto, but quite common in American cities. Like Rehak, Dark said cutting off access to traffic only pushes the problem somewhere else, until finally the only fully accessible streets are the main arterial roads.

“That’s the suburbs,” he said.

Instead, Dark suggests “street management,” which can include more stop signs, allowing left turns at particular times, and alternating which side of the street you can park on.

“When you look at the benefit (of cutting off access to a street), the houses on the street are the only real beneficiaries,” he said. “People in Toronto generally feel that the street system belongs to Torontonians. Your property belongs to you, but the streets are for the enjoyment of everybody.”

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.